The Greaseball Run. TD's employ family members wholesale

Sponge Bob

From the Irish Times Today and NO it is not in the joke bit

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0401/1224293540747.html

I bolded the names of the culprit TD's.

LABOUR MINISTER of State Seán Sherlock and Minister of State for Housing and Planning Willie Penrose, along with Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett of Fine Gael, are among the many TDs who have family members working for them as assistants.
People Before Profit TD Joan Collins’s partner Dermot Connolly, previously a party organiser, is one of two people job-sharing the parliamentary assistant’s role in the new deputy’s office.
TDs are entitled to engage one secretarial assistant with a “starting salary” of €23,180, and a parliamentary assistant with a “starting salary” of €41,092.
When deputies are elevated to ministerial positions, staff they bring with them are paid by the relevant Government department rather than the Oireachtas, according to an Oireachtas spokesman.
Mr Sherlock’s sister, Úna Willis, is employed as a secretarial assistant based in his Cork East constituency office. “My sister has worked with me since I was a councillor in 2003, and worked with my late father [former TD Joe Sherlock] prior to that time, so she has been part of the organisation for quite a number of years,” Mr Sherlock said. “I’m damned lucky to have her,” he added.
Mr Sherlock’s party colleague Mr Penrose confirmed his brother worked for him. “My brother Johnnie Penrose continues as my parliamentary assistant, as he has been for the past six years or so,” he said.
Mr Barrett’s daughter Jaci is employed as his assistant. Mr Barrett said his staffing arrangements were the same as in the 30th Dáil and were already a matter of public record.
Fine Gael TD Andrew Doyle (Wicklow) confirmed his sister Eithne had job-shared the parliamentary assistant role since summer 2007.
“As a graduate of the University of Limerick in the area of politics and European studies she is qualified for the job and she’s there on merit,” Mr Doyle said.
Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan’s son Tim works in his Dáil office as an assistant. Labour TD for Kildare South Jack Wall confirmed that his son Mark is his parliamentary secretary and has been working with him since 2006.
Labour TD Michael McCarthy (Cork South-West), who served as a senator prior to the recent general election, said: “In terms of a secretarial assistant, my first cousin has been in this position since 2005. His name is Kevin McCarthy.”
Fine Gael deputy Alan Farrell (Dublin North) said he had taken on his wife, Emma Doyle, as a temporary parliamentary assistant, “in order to help me set up my office in Leinster House and to clear a large backlog of constituency correspondence”.
He said recruitment for both the parliamentary and secretarial assistants was ongoing.
Kerry South TD Brendan Griffin of Fine Gael has hired his wife Roisín as his secretarial assistant and his cousin Tommy as his parliamentary assistant.
Mr Griffin’s constituency colleague Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae was previously employed by his father, former deputy Jackie Healy-Rae, in his Kerry South constituency office.
Independent Kildare North TD Catherine Murphy said she had hired both a secretarial assistant and a parliamentary assistant, but neither was in a position to take up the job immediately.
“As an interim measure I have hired for a period of five weeks a family member, my daughter, in the post of parliamentary assistant,” Ms Murphy said.
Neither of the people who will eventually fill the positions are related to her, she added.
Long-serving Labour TD Emmet Stagg said he did not employ any family members but would have no problem doing so, “if they were the best people for the job”.

jimmycrackcorm

How many family businesses employ family members? It could be argued that by doing so they discriminate against non-family potential employees by not .

Granted the TD's are getting their assistants salaries paid by the state but try hiring an assistant to do a monday to friday 9-5 job and then tell them they need to help you on your saturday morning clinic too - as part of the job.

bijapos

To be fair the job of Parliamentary Assistant or Secretary is not one that you would publically advertise for. It involves a lot of confidential stuff and thus is usually given to someone the TD knows very well, be it family or a constituency/party member. There is a good and proper reason for this. Along with this someone who is working with the TD for some time will be well aware of their opinion on various issues and be familiar with local issues (not that TD's should be dealing with these).

The only people who might have a grievance are people outside the family who would have worked, voluntarily or otherwise for the TD over the past few years and might feel aggrieved that the job has gone to a family member.

The issue of Brendan Griffin nominating his other cousin to take over from him as councillor is another issue altogether.

kraggy

Most of them are FG.

So much for change.

reilig

kraggy wrote: »

Most of them are FG.

So much for change.

What change?

People voted for no change by voting in FG. I'd imagine that the voters would be upset if there was change.

Nodin

kraggy wrote: »

Most of them are FG.

So much for change.

...I remember there being war over "advisors" during a previous FG-Labour Government, so in a way its no change at all, at all. (Think it during Dickie Springs time, but can't be sure...).

Killer Pigeon

Are the T.D.'s paying these secretarial assistants out of their own back pocket, i.e., the money they've earned? I remember Mary O'Rourke saying when she was on this panel on RTÉ during the election that she paid her assistant herself (although I can't verify this with a link). If so I have nothing against it and it would be entirely up to them who gets the secretarial job. Also, it's not as if these assistants have any say in the running of the country anyway - all they do is open envelopes, write up letter, prepare briefs, etc...

Also I think that bijapos makes a very good point - you need someone you trust in the job as they'll be handling very confidential information. Who better than a family member that you've known all your life.

invinciblePRSTV

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

How many family businesses employ family members? It could be argued that by doing so they discriminate against non-family potential employees by not .

Not a valid comparison considering this is public, not private, money which is being spent on employing family members. Sadly the culture you speak of with family members being favoured for employment is also prevelant in the Irish public sector, when it should not be so.

bijapos wrote: »

To be fair the job of Parliamentary Assistant or Secretary is not one that you would publically advertise for. It involves a lot of confidential stuff and thus is usually given to someone the TD knows very well, be it family or a constituency/party member. There is a good and proper reason for this. Along with this someone who is working with the TD for some time will be well aware of their opinion on various issues and be familiar with local issues (not that TD's should be dealing with these).

This is the line spun by those who defend these crony actions but it simply doesn't hold up to scrutiny. I know of several first hand examples where these roles have been filled through the regular process of employing people and were filled by people non-aligned or not related but who possess the requisite skills needed for the jobs.

hallelujajordan

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

Are the T.D.'s paying these secretarial assistants out of their own back pocket, i.e., the money they've earned? I remember Mary O'Rourke saying when she was on this panel on RTÉ during the election that she paid her assistant herself (although I can't verify this with a link). If so I have nothing against it and it would be entirely up to them who gets the secretarial job. Also, it's not as if these assistants have any say in the running of the country anyway - all they do is open envelopes, write up letter, prepare briefs, etc...

Also I think that bijapos makes a very good point - you need someone you trust in the job as they'll be handling very confidential information. Who better than a family member that you've known all your life.

The taxpayer is paying for these assistants, not the TD's

As i said in another thread, I have no problem with this, assuming they are the best person for the job, but I am amazed at the wall of silence coming from the Boards.ie moral high ground who would (and have in the past) slate FF for similar behaviour.

StupidLikeAFox

As I said before in a different thread, this cannot be compared to stuffing state agencies or getting an unqualified person a job in the HSE. Naturally a person is going to pick whoever they want as a personal assistant.

pippox

ColHol wrote: »

Naturally a person is going to pick whoever they want as a personal assistant.

and that's fine if they're going to pay their assistant's salary out of their own pocket.
But if it is being paid from the public purse there should be open competition for the posts.